My first live experience with Norway’s Altaar (mem One Tail One Head) was far from a normal one. Around noon on a sunny day in Austin, Texas, the band played a show that I organized with the kind folks at Profound Lore Records in 2011 (pictures/details here). It was a Saturday during SXSW, so many were exhausted from the week of boozing and endless bands in the days prior, but somehow, someway, this doomy four piece managed to prove that their placement so close to the brunch hour was a fallacy.

Altaar’s output until that point was limited, but the potential was there. That potential has become realized with the band’s self-titled LP offering, due on Feb 22nd via Indie Recordings. The new LP features two songs topping ten+ minutes in length a piece, each shrouded in smoky ambience and bone dry with crunchy distortion-laced guitars, clean tones for somber passages, black metal aesthetics and heaps of darkness overall. Stream the full length below in its entirety for the first time.

Altaar’s appearance in the US was a rare one, but lets hope they remedy that soon.